Where Brands Get Their Edge

Instagram changed its wordmark, and the loudest complaint isn't that it's ugly — it's that it doesn't look like it says Instagram.
Borzou and Amanda judge the new mark on aesthetic and strategy separately, and land in a place neither of them expected: it's a wash. Not bad. Not great. Which, for a logo, might be the most damning verdict of all.
The more interesting problem is the one underneath it. Instagram stopped being a photo app years ago. When the old camera icon became the gradient in 2016, the script never changed with it — so the wordmark and the icon spent a decade not matching. The new mark is an attempt to finally reconcile them, and it almost gets there.
They cover:
  • Why a logo that "reads like a different word" is a real problem, not a nitpick
  • The mismatched-letterforms issue — when custom type stops feeling like one typeface
  • Judging aesthetic vs. judging strategy, and why the answers can disagree
  • The 2016 icon change that created a decade-long mismatch
  • Ownability: was the old script actually less ownable? (Probably not)
  • When you're big enough that legibility stops mattering — and whether that's a license or a trap
  • The rebrand nobody asked for, and the case for leaving a working mark alone
  • Why NickelBronx had to abandon its own X icon after Twitter's rebrand — and why fighting it wasn't economically realistic
Should we redesign it ourselves? Comment and tag us — if enough of you want it, it moves up the list.
Connect with us
This episode is brought to you by NickelBronx.

Thanks for tuning in to Where Brands Get Their Edge, brought to you by NickelBronx.
If you enjoyed today's episode, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and leave us a review — it helps other brand builders like you discover the show.
Want more insights? Visit nickelbronx.com for brand strategy tips and tools to help your business stand out.

Creators and Guests

Host
Amanda Fischer
Host
Borzou Azabdaftari
Alabama-born, Virginia-raised, and Iranian-made, Borzou isn't just another CEO; he's a college dropout turned serial entrepreneur, speaker, and the brains behind the award-winning digital agency NickelBronx. Known for his prowess in branding and digital marketing, Borzou's work has garnered Hermes Creative, Clutch, and Marcom Awards. Beyond the boardroom, he's a connoisseur of design and anything aesthetically driven, embodying style with substance. Borzou's philosophy? Embrace what makes you unique; that's how you find your tribe.  When priorities with his family, health, business, and community are satisfied - you can find Borzou chasing once-in-a-lifetime experiences. His favorite things are amazing people and making memories, and he’s always adding to his collection of both.

What is Where Brands Get Their Edge?

Cutting-edge marketing news and advice for (and from) brands, founders, and marketing executives.

Borzou amanda random shoots (00:02.978)
Yeah, yes now.

Amanda (00:04.261)
What? You can no, that's fine. No, we don't need to you can I mean I can look yeah it's fine.

Borzou amanda random shoots (00:07.744)
Okay.

Borzou amanda random shoots (00:18.976)
Instagram made a new logo and everyone wants to talk about it. What do you think of the new Instagram logo, Amanda?

Amanda (00:28.611)
I don't love it. mainly because it looks like an entirely different word. And I I have a problem with that. I I just I don't I don't like when the font create d makes it seem like it's a different word than the word it is. And that's a pet peeve of mine anyway, especially with those weird, like cursiv-y things that they like eat.

Borzou amanda random shoots (00:37.326)
Interesting.

Amanda (00:55.857)
Pray love or whatever, those crazy signs that are supposed to be artistic, like gibberish, you know? That's kind of what I feel has happened here. And that's what I don't like most about it. I like the strategy behind it. I understand that Instagram now is not what Instagram used to be, and they wanted to come up with a logo that reflected what it is today, but I don't think it did that.

Borzou amanda random shoots (00:58.796)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Borzou amanda random shoots (01:22.702)
So I I do think there's I think you nailed it. I think so I I'm I'm good with the aesthetic, right? Because there there are different ways to judge a brand, right? And so I'm good with the aesthetic. I do think it is not the easiest to read, right? It almost I I'm assuming this is largely custom. It looks like the letters don't go together, right? It looks like they used a couple of different fonts. And we we do sometimes

use different fonts in a logo, but when we do it, it's to highlight a part of it, right? Like we want to highlight two letters, use as an icon. It's it's supposed to call it out as something to draw attention to, not like accidentally, right? And you know the N and the S are connected, the R and the A are connected, the G just kind of living by itself. Like it looks like it wants to be connected to something, you know? sorry.

Amanda (02:16.017)
Yeah, what is that?

Borzou amanda random shoots (02:20.3)
Someone called me.

Dawson, I'm gonna try to put on my do not disturb and go back like ten seconds.

Borzou amanda random shoots (02:33.518)
so we do try to like we'll use different fonts and a logo sometimes, but it's normally just two and it's normally to like highlight a certain part of it, right? Like if we wanted to highlight the insta versus the gram. So in this it looks like you know the R and the A are connected, the N and the T, N and the S are connected, and then like.

Some of it's just kind of like hanging out. and you you ri really nail the real problem. The Instagram itself has evolved so much that it's not what it was supposed to be. And Alan Peters did a really nice reel on this where he called out kind of the trajectory of them changing stuff. And the original issue was that the icon was this like old school-y camera, when which was fine when they were just doing photos. And then they evolved that.

To the gradient, more abstract. It's like still a camera, but and they did that without evolving the script. Right? So that new icon did not go with this script at all, the old one. And then they tried to bring this back to make it match that, and it like almost really does it. Almost.

Amanda (03:25.236)
Yeah.

Borzou amanda random shoots (03:45.774)
and I do think aesthetically it's good, but I think we hit the nail on the head they're running into a problem where what they are is not at all what they were. And they're having a really hard time reconciling that.

Amanda (03:45.838)
Almost.

Amanda (03:59.993)
Yeah. yeah, like you said, I don't hate the way that it looks. I just hate that it looks like an all new word. That is not the word that is the name of the company.

Borzou amanda random shoots (04:13.966)
But do you think that's do you think that's something you'll get used to?

Amanda (04:18.095)
Sure, you can get used to anything. And also there's I can make it rational too. I could say, you know, now it's like less straightforward and it's social media that's more chaotic and just people put their reality out there and everything is just a mishmash of whatever. So you can say that that's like the rationale behind the logo. So I can make it make sense, but that doesn't mean I like it 'cause I think it reads weird. So that's just I mean and and I'm fully aware that that might be an Amanda thing, but that's just that's

Borzou amanda random shoots (04:49.684)
So I I do think the uniqueness we'll call it makes it very ownable. Right? Which is always I think a priority. I don't know that the old one wasn't though, right? The old one was also so Instagram that I feel like they really owned that. Like I don't think, even though that's more of a script font that other people have used, I don't think it's really an issue.

Amanda (04:56.571)
Mm-hmm.

Borzou amanda random shoots (05:18.882)
That they had.

Amanda (05:20.953)
Yeah, I kind of wonder why they did this. Yeah, I mean, it's just like they really didn't need to do this either. You know? They could have left everything as it was and everything would be as it is. I don't think it

Borzou amanda random shoots (05:21.974)
Yeah.

Borzou amanda random shoots (05:29.486)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Borzou amanda random shoots (05:35.96)
So I I think everyone expected them to go to like a more clean modern font, right? Like that was just still the direction everybody was going. And the upside of that it would have done what you said better, which is communicate the name, right? Which is not something it does super well. But when you're this big, you know, maybe you can just say fuck it. Like people are gonna figure it out.

Amanda (05:54.095)
That's the other rationale is that everybody already knows what it is. So they are gonna know no matter what what the name is. They're not gonna mistake it for something else. So I understand how I can understand and make it make sense. I just I still don't love it. I don't hate it. I don't I just don't love it. And I don't love it because it it doesn't look like it says Instagram.

Borzou amanda random shoots (06:08.141)
Yeah.

Borzou amanda random shoots (06:16.93)
So do you think it's just we're gonna go yes or no? Just do you think it's better?

Amanda (06:24.291)
Ooh, do I think it's better? Ooh, well I didn't like the old one either, but you know, again I was used I didn't yeah, I didn't and that's just basically because of the script font, like it's just basic whatever. but you get used to it and that's what it is. And I I what

Borzou amanda random shoots (06:26.071)
In the other one.

Hehehehehe

Borzou amanda random shoots (06:40.63)
I I also feel like that old font at the time was very trendy. Right? Like a lot of people were doing that hand drawn calligraphy script ish thing. But I feel like it was so long ago it's almost unique now.

Amanda (06:44.39)
Yeah.

Amanda (06:48.333)
Yeah, which are more. Yeah.

Amanda (06:56.931)
Yeah. So I guess I I guess I like it the same, which is weird. You know, I'm I because I I guess I like it the same and I think it's inconsequential, really. I do, which is yeah, not the case usually for a logo.

Borzou amanda random shoots (07:05.815)
Right.

I I hate hate to do this, but I'm just gonna agree with you. I think it's I think it's a wash. I don't think it sucks. I don't think it's amazing. should we do a little maybe internal experiment and see if we can make something we like?

Amanda (07:13.103)
Yeah.

Amanda (07:27.969)
wow. I mean that that's fun, I think. I I think we could make something great. I mean I know we could. Is it a good use of our time? I I guess it depends on how

Borzou amanda random shoots (07:40.93)
They're just gonna they're just gonna steal it like X did.

Amanda (07:43.597)
If if the yeah. Right? do you wanna explain that? Because that's

Borzou amanda random shoots (07:50.968)
For those of you who haven't been around long, X and Nickel Bronx used to be our icon and we loved it. And we made beautiful animations and frankly put a shockingly embarrassing amount work into really making it our thing. And then when Twitter rebranded the X, it was almost exactly like ours. My son still talks trash to me about why I didn't suit Elon and does not buy my

story that it's not economically feasible for someone like me to copyright to someone like him.

Amanda (08:18.873)
It really wasn't. It was such a shame. It was just such a shame. We couldn't keep it. it was too similar and just very upsetting. Yeah. Yeah.

Borzou amanda random shoots (08:27.596)
I mean it was almost identical. I I I I still sometimes wanna go back, especially if people keep calling it like tweets and not using the X nomenclature the right way. I'm like maybe it'll come back, but

Amanda (08:42.585)
No, I think that ship has sailed. But as far as us our team doing it, I think it I think it depends on how excited they would be to give it a try. 'Cause if they're excited about it, like, sure, why not? But otherwise

Borzou amanda random shoots (08:55.936)
Listen, we will we will put it on our one day list when we have some more bandwidth. But if you're watching this and really want us to do it, comment, tag us below, and and maybe we'll get excited to move it up our priority list. Also let us know what you think of the Instagram logo.